Items of extremely sensitive nature or very high proprietary value often must be stored securely in a safe or other containment device, with access to the items restricted to selected individuals given a predetermined combination code necessary to enable authorized unlocking thereof. It is essential to ensure against unauthorized unlocking of such safe containers by persons employing conventional safe-cracking techniques or sophisticated equipment for applying electrical or magnetic fields, high mechanical forces, or accelerations intended to manipulate elements of the locking mechanism to thereby open it.
Numerous locking mechanisms are known which employ various combinations of mechanical, electrical and magnetic elements both to ensure against unauthorized operation and to effect cooperative movements among the elements for authorized locking and unlocking operations.
The present invention, as more fully disclosed hereinbelow, meets these perceived needs at reasonable cost with a geometrically compact, electrically autonomous, locking mechanism.